Hero of San Francisco
by I Hate Snatch Steal
Summary: San Francisco needs a hero, and gets it in the form of a teen who can shape shift into his favorite Sonic characters. May become a Marvel comics universe crossover in later chapters. This story is a rewrite of "Hero of New Gotham".


Prolog:

It all started when Josh Stein was walking home from school one day. He suddenly saw a bright light and simultaneously heard a boom and when he opened his eyes, in front of him was a small crater. Being the curious middle school student he was, he went over and investigated. In the crater was a strange glowing rock that seemed to be evaporating. Josh took a closer look and smelled a strange smell coming from the rock. However the rock evaporated within seconds and the smell disappeared with it. Josh never mentioned the incident to anyone. After all, without the rock in it, the crater looked like a pot hole so who would have believed him?

Chapter 1:

Josh Stein woke to his alarm blaring, it had been several years since the strange rock incident. He turned his alarm off and quickly got ready for school. This would be only his second week at San Francisco Union High. Josh's parents had recently bought a house in San Francisco after their old landlord at their old apartment had been replaced by a tyrant. Josh wasn't looking forward to the new school, since it's hard to adjust to such a thing in the middle of the school year. However his friend Ethan Raine showing up at the bus stop brightened his mood. Ethan and Josh had known each other since middle school and as luck would have it, Ethan's family moved to San Francisco for the same reason Josh's did. They even found a house in the same suburb.

One bus ride and a few class periods later, Josh was walking towards the Cafeteria for lunch when he saw a colorful poster on the wall. It was titled, "San Francisco Union High Halloween Costume Party & Contest". Josh read through the poster and sighed. He didn't have the time or money for a good costume so he figured he shouldn't attend, though if things were different he would have liked to. Josh was interrupted from his thoughts by a rude voice from behind him, "Thinking of trying to enter the costume contest, geek?" Josh turned and saw who had spoken to him, the captain of the school football team, Bradley Andrews. Bradley continued, "Don't bother, I had a costume hand made for this contest so you won't win, I will." Josh didn't have a retort since he figured Bradley wasn't bluffing: Bradley's expensive clothes and fancy car combined with his attitude led Josh to believe that he must be spoiled rotten. Josh simply walked away. On the bus ride home Josh's encounter with Bradley was still on his mind. He told Ethan about the events and Ethan recounted the humiliation he'd gone through a week earlier when the Gym teacher was absent so Bradley was allowed to teach Gym class that day since he was captain of the football team. Needless to say it was only fun for those Bradley favored over the others. Ethan mentioned that he was going to go to the contest wearing a Star Trek original series uniform and asked Josh to come with him. Josh however didn't want to show up without a good costume.

After Josh got home he was still thinking about the costume contest. He decided to look in the school newspaper's online archive to see who'd won last year. He went up to his room, turned on his computer and searched for the information. What he found didn't help his mood. The article was titled: "New Football team captain Sweeps contest as Master Chief" Josh read the rest of the story and sighed, Why couldn't classic characters ever make the top 3? The winners were Bradley as Master Chief of course. Josh figured that Halo was a good bet to win with especially with Bradley's resources to have a good costume. Second place was some girl from the anime club dressed as something with a spiked mace called Dokuro-chan. Josh vaguely recalled Ethan venting to him that he'd been forced to watch an episode of some anime with a "Dokuro-chan" in it and that the anime was crude, perverted, and the entire premise was invalidated by footage shown in the first five minutes. Third place was someone dressed as a teacher from some high school related anime. Josh had to wonder, "Its a costume contest for high school students. What's so special about a character from a high school themed anime?"

Josh contemplated who he'd dress up as if he had as much time and money for it as needed. His mind quickly wandered through various characters and decided on Miles "Tails" Prower. Ever since he'd seen the two tailed fox in the Sonic X anime a few years ago, Tails had become Josh's favorite. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd grown to like Tails. Maybe it was the fact that he'd played Starfox 64 growing up and was subconsciously reminded of Fox McCloud. Or maybe he liked Tails' character and abilities. Whatever the reason, Josh wished he could dress up as Tails. He'd take the contest by storm with the quality and originality of his costume. Bradley would have to eat his words and then... why did everything look bigger?

Josh suddenly jolted out of his fantasy when he noticed that his face wasn't level with his computer monitor anymore. He looked down at himself and saw white and orange fur instead of clothes and white gloves he didn't have on a few minutes ago. Also, his feet were no longer touching the floor and somehow had white & red sneakers on them. Josh wanted to look at his reflection so he scooted out of his chair. As he did, he felt two appendages drag on the chair, but his arms were at his sides, so what was going on? Josh looked as reflection in the window and gasped. Staring back at him with a very surprised look was Tails. Josh moved his arm, and his reflection did to. Then he touched his face and felt Tails' features. Hardly daring to believe what he was seeing and feeling, Josh touched one of his tails and could feel his gloved hand on it. "This can't be real." He said aloud and realized that not only did he look like Tails, he sounded like him too. Suddenly Josh's sensitive Fox ears heard footsteps coming up the stairs and since he'd left the door to his room open he frantically thought: "What do I do? I won't be able to explain this!" Suddenly the room returned to normal size and Josh's body returned to normal, based on his reflection in the window. Josh's mother walked in and told him that she was going to the grocery store.

A few minutes after Josh's mother's car pulled out of the driveway Josh tried to figure out what had just happened. He tried to focus on what had happened before, but he felt a little nervous about the whole thing, and nothing happened. Then he saw a Skype text from Ethan that read, "I'm off to the Costume Party as Captain Ethan. I'll tell you how it went." Josh really wanted to be Tails again so he could attend the party, and once again the room appeared to grow. After a few minutes of experimenting with his power until he was sure understood it, Josh turned back into himself, then quickly wrote a note to his mother explaining where he was going and headed off to the party.

After a short walk Josh changed into Tails right before he arrived at school. He went in and pushed open the doors to the gymnasium with a big smile, since this was a dream come true. Josh was a little worried that he'd missed the costume contest, so he asked a girl dressed as Sailor Moon if they'd done it yet. She told him that registration was still open for another few minutes. Josh walked over to the contest registration booth and said, "Hi, I'd like to register for the costume contest". The student at the booth replied, "Sure, I just need your name and what your dressed as." Josh had a split second of worry: He couldn't give his real name since it would cause suspicion given his real size. However it seemed that being Tails had also made him think faster so before anyone noticed his hesitation he replied, "Miles Prower, and I'm dressed as Tails". The student noted Josh's response and said, "Your all set, just wait for the judges to call your name." Josh exclaimed, "Yes!" and swished his tails in excitement. The student gave him a surprised look and said, "Did your tails just move?" Josh sheepishly replied, "Uhh yeah, they're animatronics" and walked away before the student could question him anymore.

Josh walked around the gymnasium and saw various people, some had costumes of various quality levels. One of the most well done costumes was of Solid Snake. Upon closer inspection it seemed that Bradley had somehow gotten a handmade costume just like he said he would, and it looked like it would have come right out of the set for Metal Gear Solid: the movie if such a movie were ever to be made. Standing next to him was a bored looking girl who hadn't dressed up. Josh trained his ears and caught a bit of their conversation. "Not bad competition this year, but I'll still win. Right, Alexia?" The girl replied, "Right..." but her tone said, "Shut up about it already". Alexia turned and saw Josh. She walked over to him and said "Cute. What are you dressed up as?" Josh responded "Tails, from Sonic the Hedgehog." Alexia studied what she thought was a costume and said "It looks so real, may I touch it?". Josh nodded. Alexia touched Josh's fur and said "This feel like real fur." "Alexia!" Bradley said, his voice dripping with rudeness, "Your supposed to be admiring MY costume." Alexia had had enough, she turned around to face Bradley, her eyes livid and shouted "I've had more than enough of you. Just because your captain of the football team doesn't give you an excuse to act like a jerk! Your officially dumped and I hope you lose the costume contest!" Bradley's frustration showed on his face but he managed to retort "I'm going to win and when I do I'll publicly humiliate you for doubting me." before he stormed off. Before any more could be said, a student's voice announced via the intercom, "Miles Prower please report to the judges stand for costume examination." Josh said, "That's me" and walked off to get examined.

Josh walked over to the judges stand and noticed that one of the judges had a laptop open to a picture of Tails. The judges spent a few seconds comparing Josh's form to the picture and gently petted his fur to see how real it felt. Finally the lead judge said, "Very impressive, is there anything else you wanted to show us?" Josh replied, "Yes," and moved his tails around a bit. All three judges looked impressed. Finally one of the judges said, "We'll release the results shortly." Josh walked away thinking he'd at least made the top 3.

Josh wandered around the party for a bit before spotting Bradley talking to few of the other football team members when the intercom sounded again. "We will now announce the winners of today's costume contest." All the chatter in the room stopped. "In third place, Usagi Tsukino... uh I mean Serena Avalon, as Sailor Moon! In second place, Bradley Andrews as Soild Snake!" Bradley looked very angry. "In first place, by a large margin I might add, is Miles Prower as Tails!" Bradley grabbed one of his teammates by the collar and said "How could I lose to someone I've never heard of! I was supposed to win this contest!" he said far too loudly. The athlete knew better then to respond so Bradley added "I'm going to have a word with those judges." and started to walk off. An older man who seemed to have been listening in said to him "My, how unsporting of our team captain." Bradley looked even angrier, he started to turned around as he said, "I don't care about being sporting. That's for losers who can't win, I spent hundreds on this costume so I should be in first place!" he stopped suddenly when he realized who had spoken to him. Sheepishly he said "Oh, hi Coach..". The Coach, who Josh recognized as also being school the gym teacher looked like was ready to punch Bradley in the face. "Your off the team and after how you treated your girlfriend be glad that's all I'm taking from you" he said sternly. "But my parents paid for.." Bradley started to respond, "Another word and I'll give you detention for a month, now get out of this party!" the coach finished. Josh noticed Alexia sporting a "Take that" kind of smirk, and then she started to scan the crowd. Josh guessed what she might be doing and decided to leave before he got asked too many questions.

As he walked out into the night air with a big smile, Josh thought to himself, "I'm so happy, I feel like I could fly" He stopped upon considering his choice of words. It was a crazy idea to think that he could fly. Or maybe not so crazy. He had Tails' form and seemingly his vulpine senses too, so why shouldn't he be able to fly? In his current mood there was no room for stress. He closed his eyes and let reflexes take over. Josh felt his tails start spinning and his feet leave the ground and opened his eyes to see he was hovering. That was just the beginning: Josh started flying joyous laps around the suburb where he lived. He even flew in the direction of the city. However he heard a clock chime and realized, "I can't be out late forever."

After flying back to his house, Josh listened and heard that his parents were watching TV. He walked upstairs and saw his computer. Before he could do anything else, Skype flashed a message, "Ogamaga calling". Josh answered while his mind was simultaneously racing with ways he could improve his computer, since it seemed that he had Tails' mental abilities too. Ethan's exited voice came through the speakers, "Josh, you'll never believe which character won the costume contest!" Josh played along and said, "Which character?" "Ethan replied, "Tails. I thought you'd love to hear." Josh replied, "Yeah, that's awesome." There was a pause, and Ethan added, "Is there something wrong with your voice?" Josh changed back into himself and answered, "Is that better?" After a pause he added, "Hello?" Ethan finally answered, "How'd you do that?" Josh replied, "Do what?" Ethan answered, "One moment I see Tails your chair and the next I see you." Josh realized at that moment that he'd answered the call with video on.

To be continued


End file.
